Title: Pokemon: Blood Red
Author: ahye01
Rating: M
Genre: Adventure/Sci-Fi
Fandom: Pokemon
Pairings: Ash/Misty, Ash/OC
Chapters: 58
Words: 169,621
Date Published: 12-04-11
Date Updated: 05-19-13
Status: Work In Progress
Summary: The story of a boy from Pallet Town named Jethro with a talent for training Pokemon. Loosely based off the games and anime. Rated M for Language, Violence, and some Sexual Situations. Please Review
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7608314/1/Pokemon-Blood-Red


I've been on a Pokemon binge lately. Other than 'The Game of Champions' and 'Traveler' I haven't found too many good stories in this genre. Luckily I found this is the author of Traveler's favorites.

Things I really liked:
-No over powered pokemon. He trains them and they grow in a believable way.

-Great training methods that are fun to read

-The pacing is a bit slow, but it's a great read. He doesn't have that many badges by the end, but he's accomplished a lot.

-Great fight scenes.

-Pokemon dying in battle is not super common, but it does enough to keep you on your toes

-Takes place in Kanto, but does not follow the same tired plots and key points of the anime, manga, or games.



Some things that bug me:
-This story takes place in a fusion of our world and the pokemon world. It's basically the pokemon world with facebook and pulp culture references. As you get deeper into the story, it get's less noticeable and irksome, but it's still there.

-It starts off a little slow, takes a while to get into the actual pokemon trainer aspect.

-Rampant OC's

-Ask is named Jethro. He's essentially the same character with a different name

-Short chapters (so 58 ch is comparable to a much lower amount)

 

I started this, and I know I've read some of it before. I also know I dropped it, but I can't remember why. The writing is a bit bland, but isn't bad, and there's no real formatting issues. I haven't noticed any major typos either.

The short chapters (less than 3k, on average) are mildly offputting. Sometimes he forgets to start new lines when a new person speaks, and whilst he's written the speech of teenagers quite well, I don't like it.

I'll stick with it a while, but I'm not expecting it to be fantastic.

---------- Post automerged at 12:42 ---------- Previous post was at 11:33 ----------

Ahhh...

Now I remember why I dropped it.

The speech ("props, dude", "call me, k?", etc) is irritating, conversations are stilted, or ping-pong all over the place. Characterisation isn't the most consistent - after three or four years working through the ranks from lowly lad assistant to Professor Oak's aide, the protagonist thinks it's a good idea to catch a Rattata, Spearow and a Pidgey; and Natalie in general up until now (chapter 11).

There's some world-building going on, and it can be mildly interesting. But it feels more like the author is just throwing random statements in, never building on them, and hoping everything comes together.

Plot-wise, it seems to be nothing special so far, but hasn't done anything badly. Currently, this is sitting at a low 3/5, but could go either way with further reading.

---------- Post automerged at 17:54 ---------- Previous post was at 12:42 ----------

I'm going to stick with the 3/5. It's an entertaining read, and the problems aren't as bad as they could be, but I don't think it's library worthy.

 

Are we reading the same story? Good fight scenes? Good writing?

Allow me to quote from chapter 42, where I skipped to see if it improved over time:

Spoiler

Snorlax sent a Hyper Beam at Gyarados, who immediately moved out of the way of the attack. Dragonite flew into the air after Staraptor, who attempted to escape the dragon's wrath. Magmar charged at Charmeleon, who in turn charged at his foe. Both fire Pokémon collided, and tried to gain dominance over each other by grappling.


Jet yelled to Hydra, "When Snorlax is recharging, hit him with your Dragon Rage!"


Hydra didn't hear Jet, and instead used Water Pulse during Snorlax's recharge phase. She hit twice, and then went in for a Crunch. Snorlax must have fallen asleep to heal, however, because he let out a powerful Snore that knocked everyone back several feet; and stopped Hydra's attack in its tracks.


Magmar charged at Thorn again. Although the Charmeleon was much faster than his opponent; the ladder was clearly at a much higher level. Thorn was put on the defensive for the first time in his life. Meanwhile, up above, Dragonite was doing battle with several flying type Pokémon at once. Knowing there was no help for either of his Pokémon, Jet yelled to Thorn, "Knock him back with Dragon Rage!"


Thorn opened his maw to attack, but the seconds hesitation in his defense allowed Magmar the opportunity he needed to land a heavy Mega Punch that knocked Jet's Charmeleon back about two meters. Magmar then charged at Thorn to use Take Down, but Thorn dodged the attack at the last second and was once again put on the defensive. Both Pokémon were suddenly knocked back as Snorlax let out another powerful Snore.


Hydra couldn't get in close enough for a physical attack on Snorlax because of his Snore attack, and Snorlax would simply heal itself with Rest anytime it was attacked with a projectile. Meanwhile Thorn couldn't switch to an offensive stance because his opponent was too strong. Things were not looking good for Jet's Pokémon.

This is horrible. Battles are linear, not much more than a described version of how you actually play the game. It uses levels. The last sentence leaves me no hope of the story showing rather than telling, and the names are uninspired.

I can't rate this, because I haven't read it completely, but I wouldn't give this a serious thought as even guilty pleasure unless it had absolutely mindblowingly-good parts. Can I trust that it has anything exceptional about it? Not from what I've seen.

 

I don't think that this should have been put up quite frankly if it is not at least 4 outta 5 to you.Not sure why it should be rated at all.
2.5 rounded down

 

I rated it 4/5

I would have rated it lower if it were a HP or another fandom with many quality fics. The pool of Pokemon fics worth reading is abysmal, so this earned its grade on a curve.

 

See, the problem with using the law of averages to calculate fic potential is that certain fandoms are rated higher than they deserve.

What the fucking fucks in Fuckington?

 

Unfortunately, better than trash is still trash.

2/5